Howling at the Moon

This year we stayed in our own country to celebrate vacation once again, due to covid. We booked a couple of vacation houses in different places and went from one to another each week.  After two weeks in a vacation I always long to go home, because of all the ideas I come along while visiting other places. Sounds familiar, or is this just me? This year I saw fisherman's lamps at various places and after the first time I already knew I wanted to make one.  We came back a couple of days ago and I couldn't wait to start. Lots of laundry had to be done, but between loading my washing machine and folding wash after drying, I started with my lamp. Today I finished it! Very happy with the result! For now it will stay on the porch, because it gives it a summery vibe and it still is summer, isn't it? But in a couple of weeks I will start to decorate the porch for fall and then I will move the lamp to our bedroom. The bedroom is totally white, it will fit in perfectly. Pattern: mad...

  The first decoration for Fall this year: a wreath for the porch, made from leftover wheat and grass that I used for a dried bouquet. Just something different. And it looks great against the anthracite colored wall, I think. I found this idea (with instructions) at Martha Stewart  

 Stash Buster 13  We're still on vacation and will go home tomorrow. On our traveling day home my daughter has her birthday, so we can't celebrate exuberant and can't decorate the house we're staying in. She will get her present when we get home, but I also brought a couple of little presents with me to give her tomorrow before we will take off. I thought it all a bit scanty without garlands and balloons though, so I crocheted a festive little bear to spruce things up. Coincedantally the background wall of the vacation home colors excellent with the bear!     Pattern: Bertie Bear's Birthday Party by MojiMoji Design Yarn: various colors by Katia     ~*~ My Daisy Bandana was featured by Creative Jewish Mom , Our Mini Family , Annemaries Haakblog and French Ethereal !  

 These two weeks I'm on vacation (one week Drenthe, one week Veluwe, both in The Netherlands) and even on vacation of course I bring my crochet hook with me. And some yarn, but not that much, because I don't want to haul yarn from one place to another, so the projects I make aren't that big either. This week I made this cute bandana for my daughter.   Pattern : Daisy Crochet Bandana by Last Hook Bender Yarn : various colors by Panduro ~*~ My Pompom Blanket was featured by Creative Jewish Mom this week!

  One of my favorite summer vegetables is rhubarb. Not because I like the taste of it much more than that of other vegetables, but because it reminds me so much of grandmother. My grandmother used rhubarb to make compote and served it as a side dish. When I use rhubarb it's in a crumble or in a cake, but this week I really followed my grandmother's foo(d)tsteps and made a rhubarb compote, together with scones and clotted cream.   What you need For the rhubarb compote 400g rhubarb in pieces of 2cm 10 strawberries 2 tablespoons sugar For the scones 450g self raising flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 100g cold butter 2 tablespoons sugar 285ml buttermilk 2 tablespoons milk For the clotted cream 250g mascarpone 125 creme fraiche     What to do Put rhubarb, strawberries and sugar in a pan and add a bit of water (about 1cm). Cook for 10, 12 minutes Stir until rhubarb is totally fallen apart   Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius Put flour, baking soda and butter in a bowl...

 Stash Buster 13  My daughter, I guess you know her by now: many requests and there's no time to lose. This time she asked for a crocheted  frog, because (her words) frogs are totally IT right now and all her friends have one. Not only her friends, but all trendy people in the world actually.  I remembered there was a frog pattern in the first Pica Pau book. I looked it up and she fell in love, so that's how it happened: I made a frog. Without the shorts and without the flippers, because clothes on a frog wasn't lifelike, according to my daughter. Frogs aren't really my favorite animals, but I love the noise they're making. We moved to the countryside two years ago, after years of living in the city, but as I grew up in a small town where I lived surrounded by meadows that were demarcated by small ditches full of frogs, their sounds remind me of summer evenings in my youth. Anyway, I still had enough green yarn left over after I made my daughter a bikini a couple of...

 Last weekend I went abroad for the first time since COVID hit us to visit a friend who's living in Ghent, Belgium. After the company the next best thing of city trips and vacation is eating; a trip or vacation can stand or fall with good food, in my opinion.  After our friend picked us up at the train station we went to his house for lunch, prepared by himself. Especially for me, the only vegetarian in our party, he made the most delicious caprese salad ever, made with heirloom tomatoes, burrata, cranberry balsamico and olive oil, the best thing I ate this weekend. This weekend? The best thing I ate in months even!   Beside the lunch, we ate in a lovely restaurant named The Church, which was situated in (you'd never guessed it!) a church. We got 'merveilleux', pastries made of a mix of whipped cream and meringue, at Les Merveilleux de Fred, had baguettes, rolls, cookies and bonbons made by Marijn Coertjens, drank coffee in cute little café's and ended our visit...